Pretty Little Posers

Of course, our best pictures are the ones taken by the Disney photographers. We hung out with Mickey in the terminal while we were waiting to board. 

When Mickey had to get back to the ship, Minnie came out to keep everyone company. 

Getting on finally! Ben ordered his Chiefs/Mickey shirt special just to wear on the cruise. 

The princess gathering was right after the girls got made up in the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. We got so many good poses, so I had a hard time picking my favorites. Kara was such a good sport this time. She hasn't wanted to pose with the princesses in a while. But maybe being all dolled up made her feel more princessy. 

Just two mermaid besties. 

I hopped in the picture with Belle since she's my favorite. 

We also had tickets for the Frozen meet and greet on the same day. It was fun to get the pictures with the girls looking so fancy. 

Formal night finery. 

That dress fit Kara perfectly a few months ago. I don't understand where these longs legs appeared from. After the cruise I noticed all of her jeans are 3-4 inches too short suddenly! Ben took her to the store and bought her pants in the juniors section. I guess we were gonna get there someday, but I'd rather she were shopping in the kids department a little longer. 

Kara was begging me to find Jack Sparrow, and I made no promises, but then we came across him on our way back to the beach after running the 5K. He had no line, so we stopped to meet him. He was funny and charming, and she said she wants to blow this picture up to hang in her room. 

Just to tease her, I insisted on getting in for a picture too. She was super annoyed. 

Donald also had no line, so we quacked it up for a bit with him too. 

All sweaty after running in the Bahamas. I've never been able to run there when it was less than 90 degrees. So I was happy it was in the lower 70s that morning. I was surprised Kara wanted to run, but not too surprised that she wanted to quit and had to be dragged through the second half of the course. She ended up being motivated by not wanting a little girl to beat her. The girl looked around 8 or 9, and she just cared about not getting passed by her. Whatever works!

Pirate night is always our favorite. We had new costumes this time! I wish I had worn my pirate hat. 

I can't tell you how happy Evie was that her menu turned into a hat. She still gets excited about it when she sees pictures. "Ooh, menu hat!", she says. 

Kiersten got Kara's old costume, and Kara got an adorable new costume that she will undoubtedly be grown out of by our next cruise. It pays to have younger sisters. Evie still fit in her Salty Taffy dress from last year. 

One of my favorite things on the smaller ships is that they have the "good" pirate show. I like to see captain Micky zipline across the ship. Kara prefers the Jack Sparrow show for some reason. 

We waited in line for reindeer Pluto, but he left and Goofy showed up, so we got pictures with him instead. Evie wanted to find out what his last name was, and we had several cast and crew trying to find out for us. We finally were told he doesn't have a last name. It's just Goofy. She also wanted to know how much all the doors on the ship cost, so that had to go pretty far up the chain before we could get an answer several days later. I don't remember what the total was, but am impressed how dedicated they are to trying to get the questions of a 7 year old answered. 

The joy this brought to the girls was maybe worth the cost of the vacation by itself. They love this picture, and loved watching it be taken. Many of the kids waiting in line behind us were laughing about it as well. 

One of my faves. This picture seemed stupid at the time, but I was pleasantly surprised when I saw it, even with my double chin. 

This was the longest line we waited in all cruise. But Evie just got it in her head that she needed to talk to Chip and Dale. It was probably a 20 minute wait, so I couldn't really complain. I'd rather wait for them on a cruise than in the parks. 

We don't always catch Daisy for a photo, so that's a special treat. 

We sat with another family at dinner. They had a little girl Evie's age and they became fast friends. We found them at the Frozen show, and Evie and Maddie had to sit together. On the last night at dinner, Ben asked Maddie when her birthday was, and imagine our surprise when she said July 13, same as Evie. It really blew their little minds to have been born on the same day, Evie at 2:32 AM, and Maddie at 3AM. We exchanged info so they can keep in touch.